Geminids
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The Geminids meteor shower is here. Actually they started last week (December 6 to 19), and the shower is going to peak Thursday. Be sure to have a look if you can. The Geminids have a longer peak than do some of the other showers so you will have a bit longer to enjoy them.
The image above (Credit: Gary Kronk’s excellent site) shows where you should look to see them.
The Geminids are kind of odd too, for years astronomers were looking for the comet that created them to no avail. Then in 1983 and thanks to NASA’s Infrared Astronomical Satellite, an object moving in the same orbit as the Geminid meteor stream. Funny thing is, the object is apparently NOT a comet which is normally the case, instead, it is thought to be an asteroid. The object is named 3200 Phaethon and has a highly elliptical orbit with a period of 1.4 years.
There is still some debate as to what the object is. It’s easy to reckon how a comet would slough off debris, but how does an asteroid do that in sufficient quantity to cause a meteor stream? One thought is there might have been a collision with another object, the debris don’t have to be very big to become a meteor.
In case you were wondering, the astronauts aboard the ISS can see the showers “beneath themâ€; Here’s an ISS account of the 2001 Leonid meteor shower.
It might be clear enough for a look tonight, I hope. I might try to get some images too, although my last attempt was kind of dismal. Half the fun is in the trying.
The longest exposure I can get on my digital camera is 15 seconds but I think I can set it to take 8 exposures in sequence. Think I’ll try that tonight. We’ve got some beautiful clear skies with the forecast low about 50 degrees :>) so it’ll be an enjoyable night to try. According to the NASA site the peak should be from 9 PM tomorrow (Wednesday) to about 3 AM Thursday. It’s nice to be retired :>)))
Saw 3 last night, from about 9:50 – 10:05pm PST. All were NNE to NE, i.e. well to my left of Castor and Pollux. Trails definitely traced back to the general area of Gemini though. Cool!
Hi Tom;
Let us know how the digital photos come out. I’m kind of down about the chances here in the SF Bay area due to weather, but I’ll be giving it a try tonight.
BTW, how do you get your sidebar condensed into the drop-down link? Is that done in a text widget or did you do some custom CSS?
Well the camera was a bust, but I will try again tomorrow with the 35 mm, I tried the little one and could only get short exposures.
The sidebar link thing is a widget: http://tech.windsofstorm.net/wordpress/drop-links-widget/
It HELPED!!!! I like it much better.
Even in Fred Whipple’s book, The Mystery of Comets (now out of print), it was clear that some comets run out of things to spray and become asteroids. The distinction between a comet and an asteroid is not particularly clear. Nature does not seem to care that we have semantic problems with it.
Hale-Bopp is a comet. Eros is a minor planet (asteroid). Phobos is a moon (of Mars). But Phobos may have been an asteroid before capture at Mars. It hasn’t changed. Is it still an asteroid?
Headed out around 1 AM local time and happened to catch a break in the clouds. Saw five fireballs in about 15 minutes; three green and two white. The clouds moved in then, so I was lucky to get out at the right time.